April 12 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley’s chief compliance officer Billy Fenrich is leaving the firm just over a year after being named to the position.

Fenrich will be replaced by Raul Yanes, according to an internal Morgan Stanley memo reviewed by Reuters, which was confirmed by a firm spokesman.

Fenrich is joining quantitative hedge fund AQR Capital Management as its chief legal officer, according to an AQR spokeswoman.

Yanes was most recently a litigation partner at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell and had also served in a number of senior positions under president George W. Bush, including staff secretary and assistant to the president and senior counselor to the attorney general.

Fenrich joined Morgan Stanley’s legal department in 2014 from hedge fund PointState Capital. He was named chief compliance officer in 2016, replacing longtime compliance chief Stuart Breslow. He had also worked at Davis Polk.

Compliance officers have become critical figures on Wall Street since the financial crisis, helping to ensure that bankers and traders stay out of trouble and avoid massive fines. (Reporting by Liana Baker and Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)